A future in the past
by jesseearlswift
Summary: the underhives of terra hold many secrets from the time before the dark age of technology,waiting under the grime of millenia, a sister of battle, lost in its confounding expanse, finds one of them, one that may change her order, forever. rated M for freedom. well, then it would be Mreedom wouldint it? ahhhh on with the story.
1. Chapter 1

' A Future In the Past '

AU: yo, feel free to review, first time writing, like, at all, no srsly, first time writing something that was not an essay in high school, wrote this over a 3 hour period once i got home, well, on with the story:

The sky was dark, save for a few orange smudges on the horizon where the few working lights were attached to the ceiling of the underhive, the place was dingy and dim, with the collected dust grime and rust of centuries of neglect showing on every surface. Pipes, small, enormous and every size in between, twisted and wound their way in every direction, some even still functioning for whatever purpose they had been designed for so, so long ago. Many had been used to carry nutrient paste to the hive dwellers here, back when there had been a population to sustain this far down in the bowels of the hive city.

Now though, the only denizens who braved this desolate place were dust and echoes, and the lost soul who found herself in this forsaken place. Sister Tianna, battle sister of the much vaunted (and feared, in equal measure!) Adeptus Sororitas concluded the lower levels of the underhives of terra –sucked-.

She had to say though, that she could have been worse off, much worse. She kicked a small chunk of rock-crete as she walked, the stone skittering across the floor (or was it a roof?) she was currently traversing, before falling into a crevice and out of her sight. Tianna checked her helmets display idly, seeing that the chronometer had indeed, not changed since she had last checked in what seemed to her to be five minutes ago. She sighed gently before she kicked another stone. "where by his light AM I?" She thought, "I came down in section 51B and im-" she checked her (so far useless) map. "in sector 91A? Sector? They changed naming conventions!?"

Tianna let a frustrated growl loose as she stopped to look at the map in more detail, her brows furrowing in displeasure. "Those ingrates at the administratum better hope I don't make it back to the upper levels before they, or I, expire from old age!" she almost felt like shouting, but that would make her head ache even worse then it already did. She HAD taken quite the beating on the way down, and the spot between her shoulder blades STILL hurt where she had been shot, though the power armour she wore had reduced the power of the stubb round she had taken enough that it had ONLY felt she had been kicked in the back by a grox.

She continued along (what she concluded) was a roof, thinking about how she had even gotten into this situation, she couldn't blame anyone, really, except for the utter BASTARD who had shot her, of course, the man had _been_(for he surely wasn't alive NOW, her squad wouldn't allow THAT) a frenzied rioter, apparently the feeding pipes that brought food down to the mid-level hive had stopped up, despite the prayers of the tech-adepts maintaining it, and as a result food riots had started up in the demetress district of level 76, normally, the local Arbites would have been able to handle it swiftly, but as it turned out, several large hive gangs had' had large presences in the area, and the purge attempt had ended in a bloody stalemate.

Luckily (or un-luckily considering her situation) her convent had been contacted to help clear the steets of the area, her prioress, Isabella, had sent several squads of sisters, including her own, to the heaviest afflicted area's to root out the entrenched gangs, she and her squad had been doing an admirable job with their flamers, right up until she had been shot.

Tianna still remembered the brief glimpse of shock on her sister superiors exposed face as she had tumbled down the vent, blown forwards by the shot in the back that had been somehow angled to miss her power-pack, thus hitting her with the forces of an ork warboss... well, maby not a warboss, she still had her ribs after all, she thought, maybe more a nob? No, boy? No, well, it was a stubb round... maybe a Gretchen? Yeah... well in any case it had been enough to make her lose her footing, she had fallen down that shaft for what felt like forever, not knowing if it led to a boiler or an air-vent fan, though the decent had not been on a straight course, (she would be a mere smear on the ground if it had been.)

When she had finally landed on a long since decomposed midden heap in the lower levels, she had been on her eighth catechism of purity, having been praying to the Emperor since the halfway mark of her decent for protection. And now here she walked, hoping to find an elevation shaft through which she could return to, if not her squad, then to a populated area of the hive to seek transport to them. She had to admit though; she had never seen architecture like what this place held, for all she knew, these shambled ruins were older than the dark age of technology! Tianna spotted another stone lying in her path on the tiles that made up the (floor?) and aimed another kick, sending another vanquished rocky foe to hurtle off into the distance.

Then she heard the crack of old, fossilized timber.

...

From directly beneath her feet.

"FUC-" she started, but she never finished, as she was too busy trying not fall to her 'death' a second time that day...

...

Tianna slowly and painfully straightened from her latest fall, throwing aside the traitorous floor(apparently roof) boards that had given way under her armoured form , she plucked a particularly vicious looking splinter from the hardened composite rubber lining around her neck, and flicked it away in annoyance. "Administratum. Lackey. Dead." She ground out, the vox built into her helmet giving a mechanical, sinister tone to her voice. She checked her map again, "-,Friar lane, Nottingham -" it un-helpfully supplied. she blinked, and shut off the map, and quietly, almost gently, set the flamer that had accompanied her so far on the other broken half of the counter she had fallen through on the way to the floor.

She flicked off the outgoing vox-link to her helmet, the outside worlds ambient noise cutting off immediately.

Then she swore her power armoured pants off.

She cursed the idiot who shot her, she damned the useless arbiter judge who had contacted her convent, the cursed up and down at the thrice damned stupid-ugly-HOLE she had fallen down, and she cursed that stupid ugly smug looking ultramarine across from her!

..."what?"

Silent(to us) temper tantrum thrown aside, she cautiously, almost reverently, walked to the poster, for that's what it was, and stared, and stared, And STARED. She reached out to touch it, but thought better of it, letting her hand fall back, limp at her side, "how?" she thought, and said aloud, "this place must be cen-no, _millennia_ old, older than the great crusades even! How did an image of his glorious angels of death find its way here?!"

She cast her gaze about, suddenly becoming more aware of her surroundings, at the half smashed counter, at the faded low-gothic letters for 'G' and 'W' at the doors, at the stacks of shelves, at the many, many small packages lining said shelves. She was in a merchants shop, she belatedly realized, one that had known of the astartes -well- before their inception. She turned back to the poster, and gently, ever so gently, reached out her power armoured hand, to brush away the rest of the dust that kept parts of the image hidden. There was writing, she realized, and, now heedless of the danger to the posters integrity, redoubled her efforts at removing **39** millennia's worth of grime. Tianna finished her task, and stood back to look at the image, this time, in its entirety, what she saw, she couldn't accurately describe with thought or words, she just blankly looked on with the gaze of the truly astonished.

On the poster, above the very detailed image of an adeptus astarte's of the ultramarine chapter, were the words: Warhammer 40k: in the grim and dark far-future, there is only war.

AUTHORS NOTE: this idea came to me when I was working at 12 o'clock in wallmart as nightshift, no idea as to why, but it didint leave me until I got home the next morning, 'what would happen if gw had been a franchise in the 40k universe in the 2nd millennium? And had predicted EVERYTHING that had taken place there? And 'what if someone had found the dillipated ruins of a gw store on terra?


	2. Chapter 2

' A Future In the Past '

AU: tricked ya! I got nothing ta say, on with the story.

"This is not possible" Tianna stated aloud, more to break the silence that had fallen over the area than anything. But there it was, a picture, supposedly made before _the dark age of technology_ depicting a fully armoured ultramarine, the image even depicted the more modern mark seven Aquila power armour, with its improved chest plates and covered power cables...

Tianna knew the standard stories and epics told by the ecclesiarchy by heart, she could recite them in her sleep! (and once had, to the annoyance of her fellow initiates at the time) but she also knew most of the REAL history of the imperium, more so than the average citizen for sure.

She knew that there had been the age of apostasy, when the predecessor's to her order were first created under the mad cardinal, she knew of the great crusades, when the glorious god-emperor of man had led his sons in the conquest of the galaxy, she also knew of the age of strife and the age of technology that predated it, though records of that time were scant and rarely found.

So she was able to know, without a doubt in her mind, that this picture predated not only the armour, not only the marine, but the_Idea_ of space marines , this was big, this was before the iron men had rebelled and almost wiped humanity from existence, warp, this was before the fall of the eldar! She carefully detached the poster, wincing at the slight scratches caused in her excitement earlier, and placed it within the storage container attached to her power pack, so that she could bring this to her superior's attention if she got back.

Tianna then turned to the rest of the room.

It was dark but not so much that she had needed to activate her helmets night vision, it was dim yes , with the only light coming from the hole she had made in the ceiling(she winced remembering) and her armours glowing display's on her power pack but that was all that was truly needed to illuminate the area in a soft glow. There were many shelves, she noticed, and she had to wonder what they contained, as the dirt and rubbish of centuries (times a couple hundred!) had settled over them, she saw one shelf nearby that contained objects with the rough outline of what might be a book, and trundled over to it, her footsteps leaving deep footprints in the dust on the floor.

She picked one of the bookish lumps at random, and , carefully mind you, shook it, dispelling most of the accumulated crap that had settled over it. "definitely a book" she thought, as she looked upon it, she wiped away the remnants of filth from the book with the front of her armours surcoat , she smiled at the thought of what her sister superior would have done if she had seen her sully the cloth in such a manner, but considering the situation, it could be excused (damn thing was filthy anyway, what with falling in a MIDDEN HEAP of all things...) and revealed the title: Warhammer 40k codex SPACE MARINES it said boldly, with another picture of an ultramarine, this one a centurion with a power fist, pointing meaningfully off into the foreground.

Better prepared to the shock of seeing something so new in a place so seemingly old, she didint drop the book in shock, she did, however, still let out a loud gasp of wonder at another one of these seeming relics. She tried to open the book, but it refused to open, "was it somehow glued together? Is it unsalvageable?!" she worriedly thought, it had been here a long time, surely it would be beyond rep- "oh" she thought, belatedly, "there is a wrapper on it". She removed said plastic wrap, thanking whatever shop owner who had felt the need to waste plastic on all of his products, took a deep, filtered breath, and finally opened the book.

It was written in the same primitive form of low-gothic as the poster, and she was able to read it, albeit with minor difficulty.

Tianna must have read for the better part of an hour, entranced by what she read, "it was a game", she thought, they had had a game that had involved all the major factions in the galaxy as well as some minor ones, before some of those races had even come to be. She checked the date located on the book, 2030, what was the mill? She looked again, no M marker, so that meant ether A: the producer of the book had made a rather large typo, which she doubted, or B: this book was made in the early second millennium, thirty nine THOUSAND years ago.

...

She felt kinda faint.

...

She snapped herself out of it and continued reading (after a few minutes staring listlessly at a wall and swaying a bit) , the game had been fairly complex, and had involved primitive small random number generators (called dice) as well as measuring tools and miniatures made of resin, many pictures were shown, and she looked at all of them, drinking in the sight. They were very detailed for being so small, and included most of the races of the galaxy, there were space marine terminators there, fighting what were apparently tau pathfinders, and in another, she saw a space marine tactical squad facing off against their tainted counterparts.

Seeing the chaos marines sent a shudder up her spine, she turned the page quickly.

She saw many things in that book regarding space marines and their works, the chapters, the stories (some of which she had not known of), things such as unit configurations and weapons, vehicles and formations, it was a chroniclers' wet dream! And all in the form of a playable game! Tianna had played her share of regicide growing up in the convent, and she could say she had been pretty skilled at it, but the complexities of this blew that game out of the water. Things such as morale, tanks, air support, all of it was an integral part of the game, and quite frankly, it looked amazing.

She had to wonder if it had been designed as a means for the lords and commanders of the past era's to train in tactics and strategy, as the price of such figures would have been –well- beyond the price range of the common man, "obviously a game meant for the wealthy" she thought. Maybe she should try to recover some of these things herself? Her prioress would love the novelty, as she, Isabella was her name, was known for her taste in tactical and strategic wargames, she had played Regicide against her frequently as a child, she remembered, partly as a means of entertainment, partly as a way to train the mind...And partly to bury the memories of their parents' deaths, that had still been fresh in their minds at the time.

After finishing the book, and looking through the attached profiles at the back, she set the book into her container and kept looking, she uncovered many books , each detailing a different army and race, she almost ran back to her flamer when she uncovered the codex for chaos marines, but restrained herself, a conflagration here would destroy EVERYTHING with all the dust in the air and dry wood, but she was quite willing to leave it where it sat, (after beating it with a ripped off table leg for a bit) she didn't trust chaos iconography, you never knew when they would get all glowy and sprout tentacles and stuff, (she had read the reports on the battle sisters who had discovered a chaos temple on Calamari 3 in the eastern fringe, and she had not liked it one bit)

She couldn't fit all these books in her container, but she could mark the area for when (if) she came back on her (otherwise fething useless) nav computer, she did, however, find one book that she had to take, had to with all of her being, sure, it had one of those flouncy martyred ladies on the cover as opposed to the black armour of her own ebon chalice, but there it was: Warhammer 40k Codex Adeptus Sororitas.

...

...

"Squee!"


	3. Chapter 3

"A Future in the Past"

AU: ...what?, do I really have to say something? Well, your still reading so i suppose I have to: Fabius bile has fabulous style, be in denial and be tricked by his guile, so one little fact that you must compile, is Fabius bile has Fabulous style. There, now on with the story

Tianna made one final check on her pack , and, upon seeing that yes, it was STILL full to the brim with random books and dust caked objects, finally turned to the heavily boarded up door in what she guessed was at one time this building's entrance hall. She had deduced from the thin beams of light spearing through the cracks that she was not, in fact, underground. Apparently she had just fallen through another layer of this seemingly endless hive, and that beyond this building she would be able to snake her way skyward once more.

She grabbed the boards with her power armored hands and easily cracked them apart, the rotten wood no match for her servo assisted strength, and was almost blinded by the light shining through her helmets sensors before they detected the abnormality, and adjusted accordingly, bringing the almost painful light to a soft glow.

She stepped through cautiously, tip of her flamer leading, wary of what may lay beyond, and felt like a bit of a cad when all she was met with was the silence of long forgotten corridors once more. She stood in a large hallway, with cobble stone making up the floor, (she guessed that at one point this had been a road) and what may or may not have been lamp posts forming pillars between the roof and floor, long inactive electrical wiring lying in tattered heaps around them, one of the lights, surprisingly, still worked, hooked up rather crudely to a mobile vehicle battery, and was pointed (annoyingly) directly in her face.

She took a left, heading down the sidewalk, and she kept to the left through all the intersections she came across (might as well remain consistent) passing the twisted wrecks of ancient motor cars and more store fronts until she came upon an opening of sorts, an enormous hole in the right wall that lead towards an increasingly bright(er) light, she listened intently, and heard the faint whistling hum of vent fans, this tunnel led outside, or at the least, to a larger area. she stepped over the blasted wall's shattered mortar, wondering for a second what had caused the damage in the first place, before internally shrugging and continuing on.

The tunnel didn't take long to traverse, but it seemed to go upwards, and that was good enough for her. She emerged to the sight that had greeted her upon her decent into this place, miles high walls with dim illumination from the ceiling , pitted and corrugated piping arching overhead. "Well, that's progress I suppose." Tianna hummed to herself, as she began to walk towards the nearest wall, which while closest, was still a good halve mile away.

She picked her way carefully through the rubble, carful now that she knew what lay beneath her feet, several times she spotted cracks in the dirt, signifying more potential pit-falls that she eagerly avoided . rock formations made of old rockcrete, sometimes as large as small mountains, blocked her path, forcing her on a winding path through the ruins, all told it was four hours before she reached the wall.

"now" she thought, "if i follow this wall, eventually it has to lead to an elevation platform... right?" she began to walk again, keeping to the massive wall next to her, when she heard a noise that sounded like the scrabbling of an animal, like a large rat, the only problem was...

The last rat must have left here thousands of years ago.

"Who is there!? In the name of the ecclesiarchy, show yourself!" she shouted out in her most authorative voice, when no-one answered, she called out again. "Do not hide from me, be you a loyal servant of the emperor no harm shall befall you!"...still nothing. "All right, seriously, come out now or I'll set you on fire when i find you!"she yelled again, her calm tone beginning to give way to her frustration , when nothing answered her once again, she was just beginning to think the noise had merely been a figment of her imagi- a rock rebounded off the back of her helmet with the sound of a gong, startling her forward a step before she turned the movement into a rough pirouette, bringing her flamer to bear behind her in one swift motion. She only saw a flap of tattered clothing as it disappeared around the edge of a particularly large boulder lodged against the wall, she walked around it in an arc, flamer at the ready, and saw that behind the boulder was a hallway, her auditory sensors could make out the increasingly distant sounds of someone running, she started to do the same.

Tianna was beginning to become annoyed again, every time she had come close to her assailant it seemed to pick up speed, leaving her to plod along after it in her bulky armor, she had been chasing whatever it was for a good five minutes now, and she felt as though she was gaining on it.

Suddenly the running stopped, and the noises that followed both confused and worried her, whatever it was was bleating, like a goat. "how by saint Celestine's sultry sand basket did a GOAT end up here?" she whispered, then remembered.

Goats don't biff rocks at peoples heads.

She cautiously advanced down the corridor, creeping as quietly as her armor would allow to the next corner in the seeming maze the beast had led her into, and after gingerly pressing herself against the wall, flamer nozzle leading, slowly turned the cor- the body slammed into her, giving her barely enough time to keep hold of her weapon as rough hands wrapped around it, throwing off her aim, the flamer, ignited by reflex, sent a spray of burning promethium against the ceiling and far wall, showering her and her attacker with a hail of small cinders, and illuminating the area fully.

The beast, for she could only really think of it as such, sported two gnarled stubby horns from its equine head, the face of a goat glared at her hatefully from human eyes filled with rage and pain as it simultaneously struggled with her and tried to put out the spots of its body length fur that had managed to catch fire from her brief spurt of fire. The thing had managed to unbalance her and they tumbled into a heap on the floor, each trying to gain a foothold before the other, the thing punched and kicked with its considerable might with meatloaf hands and cloven feet, Tianna responded in kind with power armored gauntlets and feet.

Tianna finally found purchase on the ground and braced herself, then giving an all-mighty heave, threw the creature away from her with a mule kick to its abdomen, sending it skidding across the floor to crash into the wall. As the Goat man righted itself, yelping at its cracked ribs, Tianna hualed herself to her feet, her combat blade rasping as she slid it out of her sheath into a ready position, the mutant, for thats what it truly must have been, leveled a final, defiant glare at her, before giving an ear splitting bleat, like that of a horse dying, and charged her with its head down low.

She sidestepped easily, and slid her blade into the crook of the mutants neck as she did so, finding and piercing its warped heart , then the blade was torn free from her grasp, taken by the body of the mutant as it thundered past. It continued its furious pace for a few steps,blood leaving its gaping wound in an aertirial spray, until its pace grew wobbly and, finally realizing its fate, the mutants body unceremoniously planted its big fat stupid-ugly-face into the ground, throwing up dust as it did so.

Tianna said nothing, but raised both of her arms in the air suddenly in a victory pose, as if to an adoring crowd. "YES! NOTHING ELSE HUH?!THATS HOW WE DO IT ON TERRA GOAT-THING!" she crowed, post battle adrenalin leaving her slightly lightheaded. A few seconds later, her enthusiasm ebbed, and then died the death of a thousand flashlights as, as if in answer to her challenge, she heard a bleat off in the distance, then another, then two more, then five more. Until she could have sworn she was on an animal farm on an agri world.

Tianna, face drained of color behind her helmet, slowly turned back the way she came, and realized the stupid mutant had led her into a maze, there was no getting out before the creatures found her.

She set her jaw, turned around, and relit the pilot light on her flamer , after collecting her blade from the mutants corpse with a wet "squeltch".

These animal wouldn't get HER without a fight.


End file.
